What They Do Not Tell You about Indonesia

The doctrine, "all Muslims are your brothers and sisters," was now everywhere.

Community prayers, Friday prayers, newspapers and television programs started roaring the idea of Islamic supremacy.

At community prayer meetings, one often hears discussion on how to behave as Muslims. Now many seminars, conventions, and newspapers, especially during Ramadan, discuss the greatness of Muslims and Islam.

My kampong [village] lies in the suburbs of Surabaya, the second biggest city in Indonesia. Densely packed in a narrow alley, it consists of more than forty houses, stacked like logs, with no gaps at all to sneak in between. A handful of residents work for the government or public schools; some run small household shops. Most residents are Muslim, except for three families who are Christian.

A handful of plants provide us with green, but just down the road scattered stores have been soaring: a big franchise department store, a gas station, banks with long rows of automatic teller machines and facilities that make us feel like a small part of growing Indonesia.

When we first moved here, it seemed ideal. There were only twelve families; they got together at events; we felt close. Communal meetings were held each month; the host would prepare snacks and even sometimes meals. If one of us were in the nearby hospital, we would usually drive together in groups to pay a visit after collecting small contributions to give the sick person. Only one lady, a convert to Islam, wore a headscarf; others only wore it when necessary: at public meetings, celebrations, or Independence Day, August 17.

Saturday nights were the long night. People sat outside on paving stones or rough and humble chairs, and discussed many matters, especially before elections. Indonesia was then under President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, a graduate of America's Webster University.

Religious days were marked as moments of happiness and joy. People opened wide their hearts; heaven was coming down and moving us. We visited each other after Eid al Fitr's early morning prayer. Everyone said, "Minal Aidin Wal Fa Idzin" ("Many happy returns") and "Mohon Maaf Lahir Batin" ("Please forgive my wrongdoings"). The long-held tradition of Megengan, when families exchange food or snacks -- not just Muslims but Christians, Catholics, Hindus and Buddhists -- always preceded Ramadan.

On Christmas, the three Christian families would welcome visitors. Visits to our house by our Muslim friends inspired us to see how great our nation was, and of course our religions. Our Muslim friends would say, "Merry Christmas".

"Islam with a smiling face," was what Newsweek called Indonesian Islam in 1996. The statement made us proud of our cultural hospitality (about 90% of Indonesians are Muslim): Everyone was kind; everyone was moderate; everyone respected humanistic values and a harmonious life.

But, along with the fall of Suharto after 32 years in power, a few Indonesian Muslims, who apparently share some worldwide dreams, began to try to realize this dream. Hardliner clerics, who had lived in exile under Suharto, returned. They made their way into the masses, into the power blocs supported by their networks and their donors. The dream, particularly among a handful of the educated elite, of establishing a Muslim state, or at least a Muslim society, began rushing to the surface.

There is no need for the innocent majority to have a "great idea"; their only needs are leaders and direction. The new leaders then disseminated their ideas: the greatness of Islam, the greatness of Muslims, the greatness of Islamic kinship. The doctrine, "all Muslims are your brothers and sisters," was now everywhere.

Some hardliner clerics moved out from their traditional boarding schools and started climbing the political ladder. Some of them, including those clerics belonging to the Council of Indonesian Clerics (MUI) -- the highest Islamic body in the country -- and some of the descendants of Saudi or Yemeni clerics, bluntly displayed their new aroma of Islam: Middle East Islam. Community prayers, Friday prayers, newspapers and television programs started roaring the idea of Islamic supremacy.

Many changes took place. In 1980, under Suharto and his powerful, bureaucratic Golkar Party, women almost never wore a headscarf, let alone the monotonous hijab or niqab. Many women then were on the lookout for brand new colorful scarves and cosmetics. These women are lucky: new branded products, armed with halal certifications from our MUI, are on the rise in shops. Arabian-style dresses are on display in boutiques. Arab-style long coats with headscarves are commonplace. A sea of white dresses inundates the public squares, communal prayer meetings, mosques. A leading figure in Surabaya, who requested anonymity, said, "Nowadays Muslim women feel uncomfortable if they do not wear a headscarf. They might be considered unfaithful or not sufficiently devout."

Men with long and loose beards, marked foreheads and Arabian-style dress hold a Muslim type of rosary; they chant various names of God as their lips move silently -- are now common. At community prayer meetings, one often hears discussions on how to behave as Muslims. Seminars, conventions and newspapers, especially during Ramadan, discuss the greatness of Muslims and Islam.

Unfortunately, along with those developments, our happy moments are disappearing at high speed. Being Muslim, for some, means excluding others. A polarization happens; some people do not want to deal with people of another religion.

There are stories of raids on churches, Christian shrines and mosques run by the small Ahmadiya sect. Other religious days, especially Christmas, are now marked by those for and against them, thanks to fatwas.

MUI, Indonesia's highest Islamic body, says it no longer wants Muslims to greet Christians during Christmas; it is considered a sin. Many people are afraid of being labeled unfaithful or blamed for being kind to Christians. We still can shake hands, but anything else is now forbidden. "Saying 'Merry Christmas' is against my religion," a friend explained to me. "The greeting acknowledges Jesus Christ as Allah."

Valentine's Day is another of many concerns about the supposed "Christian influence." Some department heads at educational agencies have issued circulars, banning students from celebrating it (here, here, here).

On March 12, King Salman of Saudi Arabia ended his visit to Indonesia; he boarded his royal airline and headed to Japan. Ash around the runway blew into the air. All memories of His Highness's visit reside in our people's mind, even while we were wishing His Majesty farewell.

After the oil boom, Iran's Revolution and the 444 days of the U.S. Embassy hostage crisis in Iran, Indonesian Muslims believed Muslim power was returning.

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12 Reader Comments

Andrew Boughton • Mar 24, 2017 at 06:13

The threat of encirclement on land and sea breeds fortified islands and a race to arms by China, which has already experienced anti-Chinese violence in Indonesia and Malaysia, Cold War era interference and fishery and seabed resources all duly acknowledged. Continued competition between the US and China / Russia speeds it all up. Here we are, with Indonesia headed down the rabbit hole.

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Barbara Brooks • Mar 20, 2017 at 01:35

Obviously there were deep Arab pockets promoting extremism. Nations that do not want extremism need to ban foreign clerics, donations, the importation of religious textbooks etc. from any country with extremist Islam. Without the foreign influence, Indonesia would be much less extreme. However, very few countries have banned Gulf State funding of Islam or visiting Pakistani clerics.

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David • Mar 19, 2017 at 19:52

The writer of this article failed to mention the people of East Timor under the occupation of Indonesia and Suharto. While he describes how nice and tolereant life was like under Suharto, this couldn't be said about the people of East Timor which was under a brutal occupation by Indonesia. Hundreds of thousand of people in East Timor were murdered by Suharto's regime from the time of the invasion in 1975 until they eventually gained the the right to vote for independence in a referendum in 1999.

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Adrian Johnson David • Mar 24, 2017 at 09:17

What David does not say is that the War of East Timor (Timor Leste is the proper name) was anti-Christian jihad pure and simple. Timor Leste had been a Portuguese colony for centuries, and its Culture was Catholic and Portuguese one of its official languages. When Portugal withdrew as a colonial power, Suharto enquired of US President Jimmy Carter via Henry Kissinger if there would be American objection if Indonesia "restored" East Timor Indonesia. Henry Kissinger told Suharto America wouldn't object.

So Indonesia began ruthlessly to impose Muslim culture, and the Catholic Timorese fought back. There were rumours of genocide and war crimes, denied by Indonesia-- until English journalist Max Stahl filmed the infamous "Dili massacre" in a cemetery where Indonesian soldiers fired on unarmed Timorese men, women and children attending the Catholic funeral of an assassinated Timorese member of the resistance. The journalist hid the film in a grave before he was arrested; but after release found and smuggled it to the outside where it made world headlines. Before the valiant Timorese won their independence (shamefully unhelped by any Western nation but Portugal, inconspicuous as a world power--Australia, against the sentiment of its populace refused to help as the government had dishonourably agreed with Indonesia to split the territorial oil reserves belonging to Timor Leste after it was "subdued".)

Indonesia's jihad murdered 1/3 of the Timorese people, and pursued a scorched earth tactics as they withdrew from the island, leaving the capital, Dili, a smoking ruin. However the Timorese won their crusade for independence, (inspired by their leaders in exile, and Archbishop Bello who for his courage and leadership in post-war reconciliation was awarded the Nobel Peace prize. The Timorese resisted Indonesian tyranny, which ensured their right to be Catholic and to preserve their Catholic culture and folkways.
However the World Media carefully avoided calling this war what it was: Muslim jihad against a Catholic nation. Nothing new there.

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ondrej kovacic • Mar 19, 2017 at 15:18

This is a good demonstration of that until faith and, by extension, religion are perceived as an individual matter, and religious regulations more as a recommendation than orders, people of different faith can live side by side, in friendship and understanding. But when religion becomes organized and politicized, fanatics decide on what to believe, how to behave, what to wear, who is better and who is worse, then everything goes wrong and religion poisons everything. And yesssss...It would be nice to see as the last oil well of Saudis dries up, so they could no longer spread the insane wahhabism from the money we pay them.

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Denis • Mar 19, 2017 at 12:55

This article points out what the problem is in Islam.It is the POWER over the masses of people that these hard core Imams of Islam preach. Imams run the country, not the government as the government bows down to the whims of these radical Imams. These Imams don't run portfolios, that is done by a bureaucrat after he gets his marching orders from the Imam's councils. At the top of every Imam's lists is Everyone should be a Muslim, Second, Sharia law rules the land third OBEY the Koran or we will kill you. Imams rule by fear. And if it is a Sunni Islam the marching orders to these controlling Imams comes from Saudi Arabia and its extreme form of Islam called Wahabbism.

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vivienne • Mar 19, 2017 at 11:39

Wahabbi Islam is dominating the world.

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Michael S • Mar 19, 2017 at 11:00

Indonesia has a legacy of mass killings of the Chinese minority in the 1960s.

With that background, it's easy to see why the people are so willing to be conformist. These are days prophesied by Jesus:

Mark 13:[12] Now the brother shall betray the brother to death, and the father the son; and children shall rise up against their parents, and shall cause them to be put to death.[13] And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake: but he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.

Matthew 10:[21] And the brother shall deliver up the brother to death, and the father the child: and the children shall rise up against their parents, and cause them to be put to death.[22] And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved.

Luke 21:[16] And ye shall be betrayed both by parents, and brethren, and kinsfolks, and friends; and some of you shall they cause to be put to death.[17] And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake.

Very few elements of the gospels are repeated in three NT books like this. Many Evangelical Christians believe this will "never happen to them"; and look at "becoming Christians" as a way of winning favor among men. This certainly isn't true today in Syria and Iraq; and apparently, neither is it true now in Indonesia.

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robert • Mar 19, 2017 at 09:43

If the enemy is Sunni Takfirism then so be it! European politicians need to stand up for their and our freedoms!

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Robert B • Mar 19, 2017 at 08:13

Interesting article. You missed the vanished Jews of Indonesia, though. For centuries there were thriving, yet small, Jewish communities on Java and Sumatra, the Baghdadi Jews and Jews of Dutch origin. My mother was born in Surabaya pre-WW2. A few years ago the last standing synagogue, the one in Surabaya, was destroyed. I assume there must be a valid reason, for some.

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Faiz A Robert B • Mar 20, 2017 at 23:20

As a Muslim living in Jakarta who does attend the Friday prayers on a regular basis, I personally have never encountered any hate speech by the so-called hardline clerics. Perhaps it was just me living a privileged life and only go to select mosques that are free from the recent gubernatorial election political influences, or maybe it was this article that overly generalize the issue, I am not sure. But once I even listened to a speech that urged us Muslims to not let politics biases our religious teachings and on the other Friday the Imam expressed his disappointment in several infamous religious leaders whose involvement in politics misrepresented the image of Islam among Indonesians in general.

Nevertheless, I just want to point out that not all Muslims act as what most mainstream media illustrated. Even if so, I who have never witnessed it myself truly believe that it is only a minority of Indonesian Muslim's view––the way of thinking which I, my family, and my peer groups do not concur with.

Last but not least, on behalf of my fellow "Brothers and Sisters" Muslim Indonesians, I would like to apologize to the author and other people who have to undergone the current uncomfortable political climate in Jakarta and Indonesia that happens to invade our religious sphere.

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JIMJFOX Faiz A • May 17, 2017 at 22:01

Perhaps, Faiz you should read the koran; then some of the Hadiths of Bukhari & Sahih Muslim; then find out what Mohammad actually was. Then you might understand all about the "religion of peace"...